COMMUNIQUE OF THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE
TO DEFEND SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
At The Hague, in the NATO’s “Tribunal” for the former Yugoslavia, unscrupulous violence is continuing, not only against Slobodan Milosevic but also against the very notion of international judiciary.
President Milosevic has been banned from contacting with the outside world, once more and for another month’s extension, under the pretext of him being able to influence the circumstances in Serbia. This is an absurd pretence, because nobody has ever deprived President Milosevic of his unalienable political rights. In accordance with the principle of the presumption of innocence, he is innocent until a court has proved otherwise.
In full view of everybody, the proceedings at The Hague are a fiasco on account of the utter lack of any evidence to support the accusations against Slobodan Milosevic. But this is precisely the reason why the repression is intensifying. They are trying to bury him alive in prison.
Already for more than three months the “Tribunal” has been blocking the visits to President Milosevic by his friends, Party colleagues, representatives of the organizations that support him. His telephone contacts with the outside world have been banned. And the visitation time for the members of his family, instead of 15 days a month as for all other detainees, has stuck to three days – only for Slobodan Milosevic, ever since the first day of his stay in prison.
And this is just a part of the measures that drastically abridge his rights and that are not applied to other detainees. It is insufficient for the “Tribunal” to make its own “rules” (which is otherwise in contravention of the generally accepted principles of law), it even breaks them by itself.
The grueling everyday court sessions have undermined the health of Slobodan Milosevic. However, the “Tribunal” refuses to provide him with medical treatment in a specialized clinic. The “Tribunal” covers up information on the health condition of President Milosevic and it bans the physicians visiting him from publishing the results of their examinations. Recently, the proceedings were interrupted again because of the illness of Slobodan Milosevic, but they have resumed before he was restored to health. At the same time, a previous decision made at the request of the physicians, to reduce the duration of the court sittings, has been violated.
Soon President Milosevic will begin to present his case to accuse NATO of war crimes. The “Tribunal” is doing everything to prevent him in this. The huge bureaucratic machinery of the “Tribunal” (more than 1,000 people) took four years to write up hundreds of volumes of lies. And Slobodan Milosevic is supposed to get prepared alone, in a prison cell, with the tightest restrictions in contacting witnesses for the Defense, in just three months in order to refute gigantic deposits of slander presented.
We condemn the refusal of the “Tribunal” to allot Slobodan Milosevic sufficient time to prepare his defense, as an open violation of equality of arms principle in court proceedings and as an admission of the “Tribunal” to being afraid of the Accused.
We most categorically condemn the continuation of keeping President Milosevic in custody even after the Indictment ended in failure, as well as the cruel measures that impose on him the isolation from the outside world and represent a criminal threat to his health and his life.
We call upon the UN and the organizations for the protection of human rights and justice to get involved without delay, in order to prevent settling up with a political prisoner. The institution operating at The Hague is no international tribunal whatsoever – it is a lynch law.
We demand Slobodan Milosevic to be released forthwith, because the accusations against him have failed to be proven. He should be urgently provided with medical treatment in a specialized cardiology clinic.
In Moscow, 12 February 2004
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE
Alexander Zinoviev
